Star Wars: Tales Of The Underworld Review

Whilst things might have stalled on the live action front when it comes to there animated output the world of Star Wars has never looked more brighter. As while we were all celebrating May the fourth Disney and Lucasfilm were busy dropping another series from there Star Wars Tales show with this one looking at the criminal underworld of the galaxy far far away and so then me as I review the show that has a great front end but a bad back end with the show in question being called simply just "Star Wars: Tales Of The Underworld" enjoy.

The plot for for the first half of this show is Asajj Ventress and teams up with a young Jedi called Lyco Strata to find something called "The Path" whilst the plot of the second half of this show is a young alien named Colby gets drafted into a life of crime one which sees him became known as the villain Cad Bane. Now then in of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plots that are actually featured / presented to us in this very show well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that are actually featured / presented to us in this very show was in all honesty not that bad as the plot for the first half of the show was really good but at at the same time tho this shows plot for the second half of the show wasn't all that good as it wasn't all that interesting and was kind of predictable to see play out where as with the plot from the first three episodes of the show you have no idea of where the plot is going and because of that you have no idea on if the characters are going to make it out show alive or not where as due to the fact that episodes four through six of this show are prequel episodes and feature a character that we already know to be alive and well at a much more later point in the timeline it makes those stories predictable as we already know who's going to make it out alive and who isn't with the plot for those final three episodes going the exact same way that you think that they would do and because of that there are less interesting to watch as episodes as well with the plots of this show also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this show is Nika Futterman as Asajj Ventress , Tudi Roche as Cort and Daniel Ross as An Inquisitor. Also starring in this show is Barbara Goodson as Mother Talzin , Al Rodrigo as Quinlan Vos , Colby and The Shopkeeper , Steve Blum as A Smuggler and A Stormtrooper , David Acord as C-21 Highsinger and Imperial Tech 4 , David W. Collins as Imperial Tech 1 , Blik , Kingpin , A Service Droid and Raider 1 , Matthew Wood as Imperial Tech 2 , Helen Sadler as Imperial Tech 3 , Clare Grant as Latts Razzi , Lane Factor as Lyco Strata , Tony Amendola as Grandfather , Ellie Araiza as Granddaughter , Dee Bradley Baker as Raider 2 and The Raider Elder , Philip Anthony-Rodriguez as A Gangster and Lazlo , Vanessa Marshall as A Mother and A News Reporter , Eric Lopez as Young Niro , Dawn-Lyen Gardner as Arin , Corey Burton as Cad Bane and A Police Droid , Imari Williams as The Lawman , Artt Butler as Adult Niro , Oscar Camacho as The Deputy , Michael Bell as A Dock Worker , Idris Keith as Isaac , Gwendoline Yeo as The Mayor , Jason Hightower as Tay Grutty and Town Council Member 1 and Helen Sadler as Town Council Member 2.

Now then in of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very show well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very show was in all honesty really good. Which is something that's to be expected as not only are some of this show main actors also reprising their roles from other Star Wars animated shows but alot of them are also a bunch of really good actors in their right as well with there performances in this show being the best of the bunch as they would have had several years in order to perfect there performances for there respective characters and it is something that really does shine through in this show because of it and while the shows newer actors do also turn in some really good performances as well for the most alot of them do deliver certain lines a bit more wooden which makes it comes across as if there unsure of how there character would say those lines which is very sadly the case for Lane Factor as Lyco Strata as even tho his character of Lyco Strata hasn't been seen in Star Wars until now Lane does make some of his lines sound very wooden almost as if he just learnt them five minuets before he started recording them with the acting that's in this show really being helped by the fact that this shows scripts are just so good that all this shows actors have to do is just the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very show

For once it is actually hard to say just who is doing the animation for this show as there is no animation company listed anywhere online. Now then in of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very show well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very show was in all honesty top notch and was really good with this show animation being close to feature length film good alot of the time as that's just how good alot of this shows animation was with all of the characters having some really nice and fluid movements to them and the backgrounds being very detailed all the while still retaining the close look of Star Wars: The Clone Wars wit even some of the shows characters designs working really well with Asajj being a perfectly good example of this as her design perfectly fits in not only with the timeline in which her stories take place but also with what the character herself is going through as well with the only thing that really lets down this shows animation being the fact that they relay far to much on desert scenes which does add an air of cheapness to the shows animation quality as doing something in a vast empty space is very easy to animate and very cheap to do with this show having at the very least two of the six episodes feature a desert backdrop and while the desert does indeed look nice it is something that does make the show look very cheap to do this is despite the fact that the shows animation is of a very quality with the show being worth watching just for it's animation alone.

While there are some things that this first three episodes of this show does really well one of them sadly is not giving us alot of interesting things. Like for example in episode two "Friends" they set up the fact that Lyco Strata might turn on Asajj when he gets given an offer by one of her friends but the episode quite literally never reveals on if he does it or not when that could have added an interesting wrinkle to there whole dynamic as we know thanks to both Clone Wars and The Clone Wars what she's like as a character but we have no idea what he's like as a character and showing him willing to betray someone would add to his character a bit as well with another example oddly enough being in the very next episode "One Warrior To Another" we meet a Grandfather and his Granddaughter with it being revealed that the Grandfather knew Asajj from the Clone Wars however it's never really revealed not only what side he was on but also who he is either as that could have made for a really cool reveal and would have been a great way to give both characters some added backstory with it just making it feel like a waste of character and it's stuff like that that does let this show down quite a bit as both halves of this show have moments that could have been cool and interesting if the show was brave enough to actually follow through on them with an example from the Cad Bane story being the fact we don't get to see what happened Arin with it only being told to us when showing it would have made alot more sense and would have made those stories all the more tragic.

Out of the two stories the first one is quite easily the better one as it was the more interesting story that had alot more going for it. So much so that it's not hard to picture another animated series with Asajj and Lyco as the main characters as they work just so well to each other with them each bringing out something that the other needs with Asajj she brings out the killer instinct in Lyco and with Lyco he brings out her kindness with it being easy to see them going off and having more adventures in a future animated series whatever the plot of that series maybe and with them actually doing a spin off of Star Wars: Visions later this year who knows maybe there is room for a spin off of this show as well as those characters do have plenty of milage in them and heck it doesn't even have to be in animation as you could bring in the characters to the world of lice action and have there story continue that way something that you really can't do with Cad Bane as the types of stories that you can tell with that character are very limiting and even if you wanted to be brave and try to telling a more daring story it just wouldn't work as he's a more grounded character as he's the evil cowboy that walks into the town in every single western movie out there where as with Lyco and Asajj the stories are limitless as we have no idea where these characters could end up and while the idea of fully redeeming Asajj would go against her character as she's more cooler as the flat out bad guy having her be a bounty hunter and helping Lyco out on certain missions would be a good way to go with those characters and given that the characters do start to form a strong bond during these opening three episodes that is something that would make the most sense to do from both a storytelling and character point of view.

To be frank the only interesting thing about the Cad Bane episodes was seeing how he turned his back on his friend. Which even then when you see the set up of that final episode is something that you can see coming a mile away with even the surprise twist which i'm not going to be spoil here whilst that was a good twist it is something that they signal coming quite early on in the episode while it would be hard to say if the character of Cad Bane has been ruined thanks to this show his episodes don't really make you want to find out more about him and are purely there because of the fact that this creator and executive producer Dave Filoni co-created him and that's really it as his origins really didn't need to be reveled as it could be argued that not knowing how he became the way that he is is more scarier then actually knowing every aspect of his story as given the shows title you could have had any of the other bounty hunters or even mobsters from the Star Wars galaxy take his role and have their origins explained as that would be something that we really hadn't seen or if you really want to be creative you could have had the stories from both half of this show merge in the final episode which is something that could work as we don't really get a clear idea of when both stories take place in the Star Wars timeline but at the same time that could also risk making Star Wars fans angry as well but the point is that Bane didn't need his origins explained in this show as it tells us nothing about who he is or even was as a character.

Now then this show has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly no longer then sixteen minuets and forty seconds. With each episode being around fifteen minuets in length with the longest one being episode three which is sixteen minuets and forty seconds long which to be fair the fifteen minuet running time is a really solid running for this show to have as this show is quite literally telling two plot over the course of six episodes with the show really having more then enough plot there to cover those episodes as the Asajj plot takes up episodes one through three and the Cad Bane plot takes up episodes four through six however neither story really uses there running times all that wisely as none of the characters that the stories introduce have the time needed given to them to fully establish them as characters which is of course of no fault of the makers of this show as there working within a set timeframe but it is something that should have been fixed as some of these episodes very easily could have been twenty two minuets in length which is something that really would have helped out both stories as it would have meant that both stories would have had the extra needed to set up there characters in ways that feel organic and even adding an extra episode to either story would helped to flesh out either plot a bit more as well as the Cad Bane plot is so weak that it was hard to tell what the actual plot of that story was even meant to be until it was the start of it's third and final episode by which point it was far to little to late and the Asajj plot line is one could have been a little bit more longer as it was the more interesting of the two plots but I really will it that this show really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is an action show that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very show well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very show was in all honesty not that bad. With this show having alot of really good action in it however alot of the shows best action scenes do some within the first two episodes of the show as the third episode really doesn't have an action scene in it and the action in the fourth , fifth and sixth episodes just boils down to who can shoot who the quickest which is fine going for the western vibe that the Cad Bane character is meant to be going for but at the same time tho it doesn't make for all that interesting of an action scene where as in episode one we see Asajj and Lyco team up an take one one single inquisitor with him actually putting up a huge fight even getting the better of both of them for a long while which does add an element of drama to do it and while the action in the latter episodes is decent and serviceable it's also a bit repetitive and not something that you'd really want or even expect for that matter to find in something related to Star Wars with the best action in the whole show going to the fight scene in episode two as we see Asajj and Lyco take down a bunch of droids as they try to help to steal an imperial shield relay unit from a shipyard with them only just managing to make it out of that scene alive only for the person that hired them in the first place to turn on them and set there assassin droid on them which does combine to make the action in that episode the best action scene in this show as there's just alot of cool moments in it and while the action in the rest of the show is good that one in episode two is the better of the bunch in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall this show is a must watch for lovers of Star Wars as while it's not as good as other Tales entries it is still a really good entry in it's own right and it's one that proves that there people still at Lucasfilm that really do know how to make good Star Wars media as you don't need a good Star Wars movie to see good Star Wars as sometime all you need is a little known animated show to show you that there is still some good Star Wars out there if your really willing to look for it in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this show in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very show really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7.5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Star Wars The Clone Wars fandom wiki page , the official Disney fandom wiki page and the official Star Wars fandom wiki page. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very show that I used in this very review being the really great the official Star Wars fandom wiki page really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very show with alot of them being better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on the official Star Wars fandom wiki page are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.